Refrigerator door construction



Dec. 30, 1952 R. SAUNDERS 2,623,248

REFRIGERATOR DOOR CONSTRUCTION Filed Aug. 3, 1949 Arr Ir Patented Dec. 30, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Application August 3, 1949, Serial No. 108,351 In Great Britain August 16, 1948 1 Claim.

This invention relates to refrigerators and the like and has for its chief object to provide an improved construction of door and door frame for the same which will render the provision of sealing gaskets between the door and the frame unnecessary, and which will, moreover, not suffer from the disadvantage so often experienced with refrigerator doors that the door and frame ice up over a considerable area with the result that great force has to be used to unstick the door which is liable to be damaged in the process.

According to the present invention the mating parts of the door frame and the framing of the door are made in the form of light alloy castings which are substantially semi-circular in cross section, at least one of the parts being provided with an annular bead with which the other part is adapted to engage to give a line contact, or substantially a line contact, around the door.

In the preferred embodiment of the present invention the door frame is provided with a front annular bead of circular cross section adapted to contact with the framing of the door when the door is closed, and the framing of the door is provided at the rear with an annular bead, of curved cross section, with which the door frame makes contact when the door is closed. In this preferred embodiment of the present invention there are thus two annular lines of contact between the door frame and the framing of the door, but due to the shape of the door frame and the framing of the door there is practically a shear action on any ice which has formed along the line of contact with the result that it is a simple matter to shear through the film of ice.

Whilst in the case of domestic refrigerators any heat transfer which may take place through the light alloy castings is immaterial (this being particularly so where the alloy is of low thermal conductivity), it may in some cases be desirable to avoid this heat transfer, in which case the door frame and the framing of the door may each be made in two parts, front and back, the two parts of the door frame and the two parts of the framing of the door being insulated from one another by a strip of heat insulating material, such as rubber or the material sold under the trade-mark Tufnol.

In order that this invention may be the more clearly understood and readily carried into effect, reference may be made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate, by way of example, one convenient embodiment of the present in vention and in which Figure 1 is a front elevation of the door and door frame portion of a refrigerator,

Figure 2 is a section on line 2-2 of Figure l, and

Figure 3 is a section on line 3-3 of Figure 1.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings in the door frame assembly therein illustrated the door frame In and the framing I I of the door are made in the form of castings of a metal of low thermal conductivity such as magnesium, or preferably, a magnesium alloy. The door itself is lagged with cork or other suitable material in any desired manner, as at I 2, and the remainder of the chamber carrying the framing II of the door is similarly lagged as at 13.

With a view to avoiding the conduction of heat from the outside to the inside of the refrigerator or the like the door frame and the framing of the door are conveniently each made in two parts, a front part lfla, I la respectively and a rear part Itb, I It respectively, and a strip of heating insulating material I4, such, for example, as rubber or the material sold under the trade-mark Tufnol, is inserted between the two parts, the two parts being, of course, suitably held together to form the complete frames I0 and I l.

The frame I I] of the door is substantially semicircular in cross-section and the door framing I! itself may also be regarded as being mainly semi-circular in cross section (see Figures 2 and 3). The door frame I0 is provided around its front with a bead I5 which is substantially circular in cross section and the framing ll of the door is provided at the rear with a curved annular bead It. The parts are so proportioned that with the door closed the bead I5 on the door frame contacts with the framing II of the door over what is practically a line contact, and the back of the door frame II! contacts with the head It on the framing l I of the door in a like manner (see Figures 2 and 3). In addition to the front and back contacts between the door frame and the framing of the door the two heat insulating strips I4 in the frames may likewise contact each other.

The door when closed may thus serve to define v0 closed chambers which extend all around its edge.

By making the frames of a metal, or alloy, such hat referred to above it is easy to secure airtight joints where the parts contact without the use of high pressure such as is necessary when rubber or like gaskets are used. Furthermore, the strength of the metal frames is such that there will be no tendency to distort so that airtight joints will always be maintained.

Whilst it is convenient to provide the annular line contact between the door frame and the framing of the door at the front and the back this is not necessary since only a singular annular line contact may, in some cases, be provided between the parts.

The hinge axis of the door is preferably arranged to coincide with the axis of the bead along one side of the door frame, the bead on the door frame Illa conveniently being gapped, as at IT, and a corresponding bead portion l8 being formed on the front part I la of the framing for the door. The head l8 on the framing for the door then bridges the gap I! in the bead [5 on the door frame and forms a, very convenient method of hinging the door. By this means it will be seen that in this case the ac tion of opening the door will shear through any ice film which may have formed around the contact between the door frame and the framing for the door. Due firstly to the small surface of contact over which the ice film may form and secondly to the shear action which is set up as above described, at no time will it be necessary to exert any considerable force in opening the door. All chance of the door being completely iced up or damaged in opening will thus be avoided.

I claim:

A door assembly for refrigerators, including a door and frame, in which the mating parts of the door and the frame are made in the form of light alloy castings which are substantially semicircular in cross-section, the door being provided with a front annular bead 0f circular cross-section, adapted to contact with the frame when the door is closed, and the frame being provided at the rear with an annular bead of curved crosssection with which the door makes contact when the door is closed, whereby there are formed two annular and substantially mono-dimensional lines of contact between the door and the frame and, due to the shape of the door and the frame, and whereby there is substantially a shear action on any ice that may form along the line of contact.

RALPH SAUNDERS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 234,895 Thompson Nov. 30, 1880 1,268,554 Elliott June 4, 1918 1,552,748 Kopplinger Sept. 8, 1925 1,601,055 Adams Sept. 28, 1926 1,750,631 Eaglesfield Mar. 18, 1930 1,980,005 Seeger et al Nov. 6, 1934 2,000,882 Comstock May 7, 1935 2,088,909 Jaubert Aug. 3, 1937 2,489,019 Drake Nov. 27, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 658,675 Germany Apr. 7, 1938 

